COMFORTABLY THROUGH TO THE SEMIS

NEWS Saturday 1st August 2015, 11:05pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The bad luck Redcar have suffered recently weakened their team and made our task easier, but there were just about enough competitive races to keep the crowd interested as the Border Roofing Monarchs went through against the Bears by 61-29 tonight, 96-66 on aggregate.

Matej Kus and guest Aaron Summers were the two competitive visitors, with Jonas B Andersen showing up occasionally, while the young reserves Liam Carr and Rob Shuttleworth certainly tried hard.

It did look rather as though Dimitri Berge was reserving his best efforts for his home debut rather than risking any mishaps on a track he has never ridden well.

With a weak rider replacement facility for Stuart Robson, there were one or two heats which were an absolute forgone conclusion before they started, so it was a case of waiting for the better heats to come along.

Aaron Summers was the fastest gater in heat 1, but Justin Sedgmen pulled off a perfectly judged inside turn to pass off the second bend. He is remarkably good at that. For the rest of the heat Craig Cook pressed hard on Summers without getting through.

Liam Carr actually made a good start in heat 2 but quickly ran into trouble, with Max Clegg running into the back of Liam before they reached the first turn. It looked pretty nasty but thankfully both riders were able to continue.

Monarchs took a 5-1 (though young Shuttleworth made the gate!), then heat 3 featured an excellent tussle for the minor places. Erik Riss tried everything to get in amongst the Kus / Andersen pair but just as it seemed he might grab second behind Wolbert, he locked and went on to the centre.

Wolbert and Summers contested the lead in heat 5, and two heats later we had another interesting heat as Max Clegg tried very hard to split Kus / Andersen who were providing some of the best entertainment.

The score was heading upwards and heat 8 was our fourth 5-1 to give us a 34-14 lead at that point.

Heat 9 was well worth watching thanks to Kus again, as he kept riding wide and made up ground on Riss who seemed to have second place for much of the heat. However Kus judged the final turn perfectly and took second by about a half wheel on the line.

Cook and Sedgmen resumed their usual 5-1 act in heat 10, and there was a big moment for Lewis Miller in heat 11. As we were well ahead we were able to give the youngster a run, and it actually turned out to be an interesting heat for two reasons.

Firstly Lewis was far from disgraced with a steady ride at the back, while some distance in front of him, Max Clegg showed how much progress he is making by sticking close to race leader Aaron Summers for the four laps.

By heat 14 we were 30 ahead when Jonas B Andersen made the start. Erik Riss very neatly nipped up the inside, and Max Clegg also passed the Dane, giving him a very hard ride into the third bend. It took poor Jonas all the remaining distance to squeeze back into third again.

We gave Rob Branford a run in heat 15, in which Justin Sedgmen lost his maximum to Matej Kus who was this rewarded for an entertaining night’s performance. He punched the air in delight.

Full Result Details